Just 38 editions old, but Ekamra Walks, the only guided heritage tour of the city, has crossed a major milestone with having 2,008 visitors. With two visitors from England and Romania, the city heritage walk also registered presence of walkers from 23 different countries from different corners of the world.
Recently students from several universities of US as interns at city based universities like KISS, KIIT and CUTM, IIT and other Indian universities like Banaras Hindu University joined the Ekamra Walks.
Making it inclusive, the students from city slums and also from orphanage and special children from different age groups also participated. There were celebrated authors, artists, journalists, food writers, historians and conservationists as well. lucy Farquhar from England and Ancuta Elena from Romania, both interns at the city’s based tribal university Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, said, ``We are happy that such beautiful monuments are there in the old city, well preserved and intact. It is a nice experience.’’
Dr Shilpa Bhakare, a doctor from Jamnagar in Gujarat came to Ekamra Walks with her little daughter Sayee. ``I have gone to almost all the heritage walks now in place in major cities in India, but I had never experienced such a beautiful heritage walk before,’’ said Dr Shilpa.
Senior police official Ashim Panda, ACP of Zone I, Bhubaneswar, came with his wife Chhanda Mishra. Panda, who was the IIC of the heritage lingaraj police station in Old Town area in the past, was happy to know so many stories behind each temple. His wife, a writer and columnist said, “We need to have more campaign and promote such a wonderful initiative with people and especially with the tourists coming to various hotels to popularize Ekamra Walks more.’’
Students of IIT Bhubaneswar also found the medicinal plant garden a wonderful place to discover simple plants with great medicinal properties. “The treasure of medicinal plants inside Ekamra Van was perhaps the best experience I had during the entire heritage walk and I liked the other part, i.e. temples as well as the old engineering techniques were so unique,’’ said Nikhilesh Meedapati, first year B.Tech student from IIT BBS, who is from Andhra Pradesh.
